Sex charges 'a bad day for football'

Leicester City said that the charges brought against three of their players in Spain marked a bad day for the club and a bad day for English football.

Scottish international Paul Dickov, 31, Northern Ireland international Keith Gillespie, 29, and Jamaican international Frank Sinclair, 32, were all expected to remain behind bars accused of sexual aggression following an alleged incident on a training exercise in La Manga.

Club spokesman Paul Mace said he welcomed the return of six players who have been released on bail or without charge over the past 24 hours and was anxious to bring home the final three as soon as possible.

He told a press conference at the Walkers Stadium: "The football club welcomes the release of three of our football players which means that six of the nine players that we currently have still out there are able to return home to England.

"We still have three players detained in Spain and will now be concentrating all our efforts with our legal representatives to try to secure their release as soon as is practically possible."

He said that the three players still being held in custody would be detained overnight, but he hoped that their release could be secured within the next few days.

He added: "We have every confidence in the Spanish judicial system that justice will be seen to be done.

"I think that the three players, in common with the other six players who have been released by police and are free to return home, have at all stages of discussions with our representatives protested their innocence in the strongest possible terms. As a football club we are doing everything we can to get them out of there, as quickly as we can."

He said the team manager, Micky Adams, as well as the rest of the football club, had been shocked by what had happened.

He has remained in Spain and attended court with each of the players as allegations of sexual aggression, breaking and entering and failing to come to the aid of persons in distress were put to them.